Drug Smuggling Florida

A man who drank from a soft drink bottle containing dissolved cocaine was in a coma Saturday, while federal officials discovered two other tainted bottles and checked possible links to Colombian drug smugglers. Drug traffickers frequently smuggle cocaine by dissolving it in liquids, officials said.

A Florida sheriff's department that took part in a seven-year money-laundering inquiry received half of the $50 million seized from a marijuana smuggler--the largest single currency seizure made by U.S. Customs--and it was the "culmination of several years of hard work on [the] part of Customs and Monroe County Sheriff's Office," Customs Commissioner Ray Kelly said in Miami.

More than 70,000 people found their way to this remote patch of high ground last weekend to hear country music star Little Jimmy Dickens; see clowns, football stars and racing pigs; and, for $5, enjoy a plateful of smoked mullet, hush puppies and coleslaw. Legendary backcountry guide Loren G. (Totch) Brown was on hand too, autographing copies of his memoirs.

Nearly 60 American Airlines employees and food service workers were charged Wednesday with smuggling what they thought were drugs and explosives onto planes in a sting operation that federal authorities said revealed alarming security breaches at Miami International Airport. The two-year undercover operation began when an American Airlines pilot complained about a cup of coffee on the plane that was later found to have been tainted with heroin. "The pilot said, 'There's a distinct taste.

Nearly 60 American Airlines employees and food service workers were charged Wednesday with smuggling what they thought were drugs and explosives onto planes in a sting operation that federal authorities said revealed alarming security breaches at Miami International Airport. The two-year undercover operation began when an American Airlines pilot complained about a cup of coffee on the plane that was later found to have been tainted with heroin. "The pilot said, 'There's a distinct taste.

A third day of deliberations in the cocaine-smuggling trial of reputed Colombian drug lord Carlos Lehder ended in Jacksonville, Fla., without any sign that the jury was near a verdict. Deliberations were scheduled to resume today. Lehder, 38, and co-defendant Jack Carlton Reed, 57, of San Pedro, Calif., are being tried on charges of conspiring to smuggle 3.3 tons of cocaine into the United States from Colombia from 1978 to 1980.

Customs agents in Miami have seen a six-fold increase in a single year in cocaine seized from people smuggling the drug into the United States by swallowing it in balloons or condoms, authorities said. In fiscal 1988, agents recovered about 23 pounds of cocaine from swallowers. In 1989, they recovered 136 pounds of cocaine from 84 swallowers, officials said.

Hurricane Andrew may have devastated the nation's cocaine capital, but traffickers and drug hunters are quickly returning to business as usual, officials say. After the storm, high-tech radar and detection equipment was quietly flown into devastated Homestead Air Force Base--the center for many interdiction programs--and is operating under camouflage.

A Florida sheriff's department that took part in a seven-year money-laundering inquiry received half of the $50 million seized from a marijuana smuggler--the largest single currency seizure made by U.S. Customs--and it was the "culmination of several years of hard work on [the] part of Customs and Monroe County Sheriff's Office," Customs Commissioner Ray Kelly said in Miami.

Twenty people, including four U.S. Customs Service workers and a former Cuban political prisoner, were indicted for smuggling nearly 40 tons of cocaine and marijuana into the country. The 15-count indictment by a federal grand jury in Miami charged the defendants, all of whom are in custody, with using law enforcement information provided by the customs employees to elude detection of their drug smuggling operation.

More than 70,000 people found their way to this remote patch of high ground last weekend to hear country music star Little Jimmy Dickens; see clowns, football stars and racing pigs; and, for $5, enjoy a plateful of smoked mullet, hush puppies and coleslaw. Legendary backcountry guide Loren G. (Totch) Brown was on hand too, autographing copies of his memoirs.

Hurricane Andrew may have devastated the nation's cocaine capital, but traffickers and drug hunters are quickly returning to business as usual, officials say. After the storm, high-tech radar and detection equipment was quietly flown into devastated Homestead Air Force Base--the center for many interdiction programs--and is operating under camouflage.

A man who drank from a soft drink bottle containing dissolved cocaine was in a coma Saturday, while federal officials discovered two other tainted bottles and checked possible links to Colombian drug smugglers. Drug traffickers frequently smuggle cocaine by dissolving it in liquids, officials said.

Coast Guardsmen in the Florida Keys have worked for cocaine smugglers, selling codes and disabling patrol boats, a television report alleged. At least 15 guardsmen assigned to the Islamorada, Fla., station worked for or with the smugglers they were assigned to catch, NBC-TV's "Expose" show reported. Adm. Paul Yost Jr., Coast Guard commandant, said he was unaware of any federal investigation of cocaine involvement in the Coast Guard, NBC said. However, Lt. Cmdr.

The Florida National Guard will assist in a crackdown against drug smugglers that could lead to a broader role for the Guard in the war on drugs, Gov. Bob Martinez said. Martinez declined to disclose details of the federally financed operation until it is over, saying: "I certainly don't want the people in Nicaragua, Colombia and all the rest to have the details before they get to work."